It’s not like Stern is a novice when it comes to auctions. He runs PropertyOnion.com, which is made up of investors helping investors looking into real estate transactions. He said he has been doing real estate investments for 35 years.

“It just shows you that sometimes even the educators can get smashed a bit,” Stern said.

Stern, who is from Boca Raton, said the Loxahatchee property was a bit out of his comfort zone, so he drove by it the week before the auction to take a personal look and everything appeared fine, he said. It burned down the next day, he said.